


Sanctuary

by TextualDeviance



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, M/M, Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-20
Updated: 2020-01-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22337329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TextualDeviance/pseuds/TextualDeviance
Summary: To rest and recuperate after the battle of Exegol and all the other hell they've been through, Maz and Lando send our three heroes to a peaceful retreat on Naboo.They soon realize that their feelings for each other go beyond friendship, and more than battle scars need to be healed.
Relationships: Kaydel Ko Connix/Rose Tico, Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey
Comments: 3
Kudos: 83





	Sanctuary

**Author's Note:**

> Set shortly after "Epilogue," and before the end scene of TROS.

"A retreat? Are you serious?" Finn couldn't help but be surprised at Maz's suggestion.   
  
"Of course I am," Maz said with a laugh. "My friends at the artists' colony would love to have such honored guests."  
  
"But what about everything we need to do? There's so much work to get the Republic back together and deal with any First Order sympathizers and..." Poe gestured randomly. He looked just as shocked as Finn felt.  
  
"Let me handle it for a little while," Lando cut in. "We've dealt with all the immediate business. The rest is just details for now, and I know how to manage those. You've all been in this particular fight a lot longer than I have. I have some lost time to make up for, and some old political contacts I need to bring on board. The Resistance can survive without you for a few days, I promise."  
  
Rey looked relieved. "Wow. Thank you, General." Finn wondered if she, like him, had ever had much in the way of leisure time in her whole life.  
  
"If we need you, we know how to find you," Maz added. "The galaxy will be better off if we all take some time to rest and regain our strength after everything we've been through. Chewie is leaving for Kashyyyk tomorrow. Even the droids have submitted themselves to engineering for maintenance and upgrades."

Finn was still a little hesitant. He wasn’t sure if he even knew how to relax. But he knew Maz was probably right. “Okay then. Retreat it is!”   
  
  
Finn wandered by Rose's sleeping alcove on his way to the Falcon the next morning. "Sure you don't want to come with?"  
  
"You three go. I have some other plans of my own." Rose looked over her shoulder. Lieutenant Connix sat on Rose's bed, reading a book while idly re-braiding her combed-out hair. "Kaydel and I... we're going to visit her family. She wants to introduce me to her parents."  
  
Finn frowned in confusion. "Introduce... Oh!" He smiled as the realization dawned on him. A small part of him wondered about what might have been had things been different in the last year—had they had more time together—but seeing the way Rose looked at her new love washed away any regrets. "Well, that certainly sounds important. I hope you enjoy it!"  
  
"We will." Rose stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. "Be good to yourself, Finn," she said quietly. She glanced over to where the Falcon was parked. Rey and Poe were heading up the ramp, bickering affectionately about who was getting the pilot's seat. "And be good to them, too. They love you, you know."  
  
"They what?"  
  
Rose laughed. "Finn! You're adorable sometimes, you know that?" She shoved him gently. "Go, silly."

***

Even after a year on Ajan Kloss and several trips to other verdant worlds, Rey still found green landscapes breathtaking. This particular location, a quaint village at a lake on Naboo, was especially lush. It was late spring in this hemisphere of the planet, and every cobblestoned street and alley was lined with trees and planters filled with colorful blooms. The hills nearby were full of abundant farms, vineyards, and orchards. And on the slopes leading down to the lake shore were hundreds of clumps of shrubs whose bright yellow flowers gave the entire area a sweet, almost intoxicating scent.   
  
"This place is amazing," she said as she set her bag down by the door of the rustic cottage they were staying in. The walls were a cream-colored stone, with exposed wood beams across the ceiling. The floor was smooth, polished wood, inlaid with medallions carved by the village's resident artists and crafters. More art decorated most of the walls and surfaces, and there were also several potted plants scattered throughout the space.   
  
Perhaps most astonishing of all was what was in the garden behind the cottage: A natural hot spring, lined with colorful tiles and ringed by a soft, mossy expanse of grass, with a small path beyond that led to a pink-sand shoreline. The cottage itself was set somewhat apart from the rest of the village; Maz told them she had instructed her friends to make sure the trio were given private accommodations where they wouldn't be disturbed. The only sounds Rey could hear that were not made by herself or her companions were water, rustling leaves, and the contented chitters and chirps of small local fauna. She paused for a moment, connecting herself with the Force and taking in the gentle, restoring energy of the living things around her.  
  
Finn noticed. "I feel it, too. It's so peaceful. I don't think I've ever felt this much... stillness, I guess I'd call it. I can't remember a time when things weren't always loud and chaotic."  
  
"So who's getting which bed?" Poe, ever direct, flopped down into a fluffy chair and stretched out, putting his hands behind his head.  
  
"That's a good question," Rey said. They'd wandered the space when they first came in. There were two sleeping chambers off of the main living area. One had an expansive bed that could hold two to three human-sized beings or one larger one; the other had two singles. Across from the chair Poe had claimed was another piece of lounging furniture which could also serve as a single bed, albeit for someone small. "I can take this," she said, sitting down on the piece's thick cushion.  
  
Poe shook his head. "Nah. You should take one of the rooms. For privacy. The one with the big bed, I'd say."

"Are you sure?" Having spent much of her life sleeping on hard surfaces, cots or berths, an actual bed sounded like quite a luxury. She imagined splaying out on it all by herself, sure she could do so without touching the edges. It seemed downright odd.

"Yeah, of course. Finn and I are more used to sharing quarters what with the whole military thing, right?" He looked over at Finn, who nodded. "We can both use the other room, or I can sleep out here. Whichever works. I can sleep anywhere, honestly. Maybe even right in this chair." He stifled a yawn and closed his eyes.   
  
Rey giggled. Naboo’s sun had passed its apogee, but it was far from dusk, much less night. Still, the weariness in her bones made her consider taking Poe's cue and napping right then and there. Other physical needs were more pressing, though. "I think I'd like to poke around in the kitchen. Want to join me, Finn?"  
  
He ran hand over his belly. "Food sounds terrific! Wonder what they have here."  
  
The cooking facilities, it turned out, had been well stocked with a delicious array of local produce, proteins, and beautifully crafted sweets. A fluffy loaf of bread, studded with dried orange berries and baked to perfection with a shiny, reddish crust, sat on a cutting board on the table. It plus a handful of spicy nuts and a pungent cheese made for a lovely lunch.  
  
Poe got up, foregoing his threatened nap, and joined them, adding a bottle of blumfruit cooler and a couple of strips of cured meat to his own meal.  
  
For a short time, there was a somewhat awkward silence, which they all filled with simply enjoying their food. Rey felt perfectly comfortable with the men who sat across from her, yet there was also so much unspoken between them. Having no idea where to start, she hid in a cup of fizzy juice instead.  
  
Poe patted his mouth with a napkin and cleared his throat. "We survived this. I honestly don't know how, but we did." He winced. "Most of us, at least."  
  
"Most of us," Finn echoed. He seemed weighted down momentarily. Rey put a hand on his arm, opening herself to what he was feeling. It was more or less the same as she felt. And Poe, too, even if he was obviously trying to bury it a little deeper. He had a very strong bond with the members of his squadron; losing any of them must have felt like losing a sibling.  
  
Finn finally raised his vessel of blue ale. "To Leia," he said reverently, "and everyone we lost."  
  
Rey let out a relieved breath and raised her own cup. Poe did the same.  
  
A moment of melancholy passed through them all, yet the deepness of her own grief still had not fully surfaced. The whole resistance had held a memorial for their beloved general, and all the others that had fallen, back on Ajan Kloss. They had all cried and mourned then, but she still felt there might be some unfinished emotional business, especially as concerned sorting through the heavy, complicated feelings she had about Ben and the sacrifice he made for her. She thought momentarily about the two light sabers that rested at the bottom of her pack—she never went anywhere without them, now. Luke's saber was now as much her own as his, especially since she had spent so much time lovingly repairing it after it had been torn apart. But perhaps there was a better, more apt place for both of the sabers to be. That task, however, could be done later. Maybe when she had tied up some of the other loose ends floating around her.

They ate the rest of their meal mostly in calm quiet, punctuated by occasional chitchat. On finishing, Poe stood up and stretched. "Anyone need the refreshing facilities? Because frankly, I think I'm about as ripe as a bantha's behind, and I could use a wash."  
  
Rey laughed. "Please do." She felt a little sweaty and sticky herself, but a proper refresh could wait for now.  
  
While Poe got himself clean—singing bits of a bawdy song as he did, his voice surprisingly light and pleasant as it filtered out from the hygiene room—Rey and Finn tidied the kitchen and then moved to the long lounger. They sat close together, their shoulders and thighs touching, drawing reassurance from the contact. "You’ve been mourning for more than Leia," she said, "haven’t you?"  
  
Finn nodded and rubbed his face. "So much has happened. So many regrets. When Holdo split Snoke's ship, even as happy as I was, part of me died a little. While Rose and I were back there trying to shut off that tracker, it was all I could do not to try to stage a rescue, too."  
  
"Of who?"  
  
"The kids. Most of the First Order's stolen children were raised and trained on our various planet outposts, but some of the older ones were on that ship. Usually at twelve or so, some of the best and brightest would get picked out of the training camps and brought to the ship for early officer education. I think the last time I was there, there was a group of about twenty. They would have been on the deck just below Snoke's chambers—he wanted to keep them close. But I guess they're all gone now."  
  
"Maybe they got out in escape pods?" Rey tried to sound hopeful. She had been intensely focused on her own survival after the vessel had been hit; she didn't even know Finn and Rose had been aboard at the time. Any sense she'd had of other innocent beings there was out of conscious recognition.   
  
"Maybe." Finn mustered a small smile. "It's just hard not to think about how many lives the First Order ruined, not only in how many people they killed, but how many they stole and twisted to their cause. Entire generations on some planets just disappeared. And I'll never even know which one I came from."  
  
"Oh, Finn." Rey put her arms around him. As soon as she did, he broke down. She held him for some time while he cried, her own cheeks dampening, too.  
  
Finally, he raised his head. "Sorry for putting that on you. I don't mean to be selfish. The things you've been through..."  
  
Rey shrugged. "I'm mostly at peace with it, now. I know where I came from, and I know I've purged all the darkness that was inside me. I honestly feel like a new person: like I wasn't just brought back to life on Exegol, but given a whole new one, with purpose and a future. I'm not entirely sure what that future holds just yet, but I can at least feel the past fading away. It's strange, I know, but it feels like Ben gave me the all of the good parts of himself when he saved me. And since Kylo was already dead, that meant there was nothing left for him. I hated him so much for so long, but at the end, there was just Ben: the person he should have been all along. Is it weird that I'm mourning him, too?"

"I don't know if I understand it," Finn said carefully, taking her hands in his, "but I wasn't there. I only remember him as the person who tortured you and Poe; who killed Han and so many other people with no mercy. I believe what you say about who he was at the end, though, and since he brought you back to me—to us—I suppose I owe him that. Maybe somewhere out there in the Force he knows I'm grateful for at least that much."

"I think he does," Rey said. "I hope so. And I am very glad I came back. When I was dying, the last thing I thought was how sad I was that the last I saw of you and Poe was when I ran off and left you on Kef Bir." She shuddered, remembering the terrible vision of her dark self that Kylo had projected into her mind.

"Well, you're here with us now, and speaking for myself, at least, I'm never going to let you go again." 

Rey felt a flood of warmth and happiness, and leaned into Finn's shoulder, glad to be alive and safe. 

Shortly, Poe emerged from the hygiene room in a cloud of fragrant steam, his hair scraggly and wet, and a plush, pale-blue towel wrapped around his waist. That was the only thing, however, that he wore. Rey couldn't help staring for a moment. There had been only two other times in her whole life she'd seen a man without a shirt: Finn when she was helping the medical staff take care of him after his grave injury from Kylo's light saber, and Kylo himself, via Snoke's unwanted mental connection between them. Neither of those situations was in any way pleasant—the latter had made her feel like vomiting. Now, however, the sight of Poe in that state of undress, with no extenuating circumstances to make it uncomfortable, brought up an entirely different, and unexpectedly strong, set of feelings to go with the warm ones she was already basking in from being next to Finn. "All yours," Poe said, nodding back to the room. "Whichever 'you' wants it first." His face suddenly lit up as he saw something on the shelves behind them. "Whoa! Is that Nonghala? I love that game. Anyone want to play later?"  
  
Rey followed his gaze, which had rested on a small wooden box with colorful symbols painted on its sides. "I've never heard of it, but I'm willing to learn if you can teach me." She stifled an impulse to ask him to teach her some other things, too.  
  
"Of course!" Poe said, beaming. "Just no Force cheating or whatever." He winked.  
  
Rey shook her head. "Wouldn't consider it."  
  
"Me, neither," Finn added.   
  
"Oh good—wait. What?" Poe raised an eyebrow.  
  
Finn smiled sheepishly. "Ah! Right. About that..."  
  
Rey gave him a knowing smile and got up. Finn had a lot of explaining to do, and she needed a nice, long session in the refresher.

***

The next morning dawned cool and moist, with a hint of a later rainstorm in the air. Poe stretched and scritched idly at his stubbly chin, considering whether he should grow his beard out. A very long night's rest—he had chosen to use one of the single beds in the secondary sleeping chamber, on Finn's invitation—had done him a world of good. Slipping into fresh underclothes and a pair of trousers, he padded out of the room, trying not to wake his still-snoring roommate.  
  
Rey, however, was already up. Going by the empty plate in the kitchen sink, she had eaten, and a quick glance out the large window on the back wall located her. She was dressed in just a casual tunic and loose leggings, her usual long scarf absent, and was also barefoot. Her hair was unbound; it suited her that way, he thought. Legs crossed and eyes closed, she hovered over the grass near the hot spring as she meditated. Not for the first time, Poe was deeply impressed. And, also not for the first time, ever so slightly envious. The feeling was complicated by the revelation Finn had made last night. A lot of things made sense now that hadn't, before.  
  
Not wanting to disturb Rey's morning routine, Poe rummaged through the kitchen's food-storage areas to get himself a pastry and a big cup of caf to start his own day. It somehow seemed unbearably prosaic and mundane to simply be having breakfast while just steps away, one of your best friends was directly communicating with the entirety of existence, but maybe that was his role here: to be the boring one, for once. 

As he sipped the hot beverage and gazed out the window, admiring Rey's calmness and poise, he felt humbled, and not a little weary. He had lost count of the number of times he had cheated death—and the number of friends and fellow soldiers who hadn't been able to. He rubbed at his left arm. The bacta treatment he'd received back at the base had worked well to heal his blaster wound, but there was still a fair amount of pain as the tissues knitted themselves back together. That was far from his only scar. He certainly wasn't an unhealthy man, but years of putting his body through things organic beings weren't meant to endure had taken their toll. In his grooming of late, he had noticed several new gray hairs, and he couldn't help thinking about how much of his youth had been spent in service of things beyond himself. His teenage flirtation with the wrong side of the law had been but a passing fancy; once he joined the New Republic military, and then later the Resistance, almost everything he did had been related to using his considerable squad leadership and piloting skills to make the galaxy a better place. Perfomative braggadocio aside, the reality of Poe's adult life had been one of perpetually putting himself in harm's way, never knowing if the mission of the day might be his last. 

Still, his life had been positively luxurious compared with the trauma his friends had had to face. The serene young woman outside had literally died only recently, and that after a lifetime of starvation, fear, and loneliness. The charming man who slept peacefully down the hall had been stolen from his family when he was but a toddler and trained to be an organic killing machine, with no feelings or aspirations, or even a sense that his life had value. Perhaps, Poe considered, that was why the two seemed to have bonded so easily. Beyond the Force connection he now knew they had, they had much more in common with each other than with him. That reality did hurt a little, yet somehow, he no longer felt like as much of an outsider with them as he once did, watching helplessly as Finn chased Rey while she chased her own demons.

He heard movement behind him and turned. Finn wandered in, stretching and yawning. He ran a hand over his head, fluffing up the stylish twists in his hair. In their year together since the battle of Crait, Poe had seen his friend on many a morning, but never in quite such a casual setting. It was nice, he thought, to see Finn's handsome face with a calm, content expression, rather than the fear and grief it had so often sported since the moment they met. 

Finn glanced out the window, seeing Rey there, and smiled. "Figured she might be doing that," he said.

"Is that something you can do?" Poe asked. 

Finn laughed. "Oh, no. Maybe someday? I don't know. I can feel the Force and sort of, I guess, give it suggestions? But I don't have anywhere near the control over it to do something like that. Leia told me once that her kind of ability was something very rare. I think she might have known that Rey had come from a powerful line. Maybe she even knew it was Palpatine? She knew a lot of things she never told us."

"Well, there were a lot of things Rey never told us, too," Poe added. "Or maybe it's just that she never told me."

"Oh, she kept it from me. Maybe not quite as much as she did you, but there was always a part of her that was closed off to both of us. With what we know now, maybe that's just as well. Honestly, the idea that she could have turned to the Dark Side is terrifying. With that much power? She would have made Vader look like a child."

Poe stared at her for a moment. She seemed peaceful enough now, but… "Do we know for certain that's not still a possibility?"

"Yes," Finn said confidently. "I can feel it. I mean, everyone has a little of that potential in them. The First Order would never have been able to create their army if it wasn't possible to take those little sparks of hatred and rage we all have and build them into mindless violence. But people can still choose to be better. Getting a little nudge from the Force helps—I know that's what happened with me, and with Jannah's company—but you still have to actively choose the light. And that's what Rey did: She chose. With all the things she's been through, and all the things Palpatine tried to make her into, she could have fallen. She could have turned her pain into anger and into evil, but she didn't. Kylo chose to follow his darkness. She chose to destroy hers."

Perhaps Rey knew she was being talked about. She opened her eyes and gracefully lit upon the ground. She smiled and waved at them through the window and came in, aiming for Finn. 

"Good morning," she said brightly, embracing Finn and dropping a kiss on his cheek. She turned, and to Poe's surprise, kissed his cheek, as well. "And good morning to you, too!"

Poe realized Finn's instincts were true: Rey had chosen the light. Indeed, she seemed to embody it.

***

Midday did indeed bring a brief, warm squall with it, but soon the clouds cleared, and the bright afternoon sun warmed away any lingering dampness. On Poe's suggestion, they took their lunch down to the shore, listening to the gentle lapping of the waves, and watching small pleasure craft passing in the distance as they ate. Almost immediately after they finished, Poe stripped down to his underclothes and ran out for a swim. Rey and Finn, back on land, watched him with amusement as he frolicked in the water, his antics deeply confusing a small flock of circling avians who undoubtedly wondered when the lake's aquatic prey had grown so large. 

It took some time for Finn to truly let down his guard, instead of scanning around them all the time for potential First Order craft or troops, but eventually, he was able to relax. It helped that he had something far more pleasant taking a lot of his attention. 

"I don't really mind this kind of sand," Rey said thoughtfully as she nibbled on some citrus wedges remaining from their meal. "It doesn't feel so harsh, like it might scour off my skin if a strong wind caught it." She trailed her fingers through the soft, pink grains. Eons of being buffeted by the ebb and flow of lake water had indeed broken down and polished the grains into almost impossibly tiny spheres. Sitting on it felt, Finn thought, more like sitting on warm snow than small rocks. 

Finn slipped an arm around her shoulders. "Well, you don't ever have to go back to Jakku if you don't want to. Even if there's something the Resistance—or the Republic, if we manage to form a new one—needs to take care of there, we'll make sure someone else does it."

"Thank you," she said, leaning into his shoulder and welcoming the kiss he dropped on her head. 

It was sort of silly, he supposed, that he still felt so protective of her, given that she was undoubtedly the strongest and most powerful warrior among them—probably the most powerful in that entire sector of the galaxy. Yet she had far more vulnerability than mere combat, flying, and Force-wielding skill could make up for. Impressive agility and light-saber prowess could do little to protect the girl inside her heart who still, even after everything that had happened, grieved for the loss of her family and childhood. He was nowhere near as connected with the Force as she, but he tried nonetheless to pass whatever extra strength he might have to her; to reassure that girl, and the woman she now was, that she was not alone.

He also knew Poe, if he'd had such abilities, would surely do the same. Their friend, despite his surface cockiness, had a deep well of devotion to those he cared for. Finn had been almost oblivious to it before, so focused was he on saving Rey from the dire fate she seemed to be running headlong into, but now he finally understood. It wasn't that Poe never cared about Rey, or resented her or Finn's focus on her somehow. Oh, he probably did feel a little wounded pride when he realized she was every bit the pilot he was, but overall it wasn't really a negative thing, Finn thought. It was mostly that he was scared for her, too, and scared that if she failed in her dogged fight with the Dark Side, the grief and tragedy that followed would take down Finn as well, not to mention the entire free galaxy. 

But any such worries were in the past. Finn was now free to shift focus away from Rey and the demands of sheer survival long enough to connect with the other things around him. Watching Poe splash around, Finn was amused by his friend’s unrestrained exuberance, and realized that there certainly were some connections he should consider making more solid—one in particular.

Going by the direction Rey was gazing, and the affectionate look on her face, it seemed she herself might be thinking the same. A month ago, that thought would have upset him, given the direction her attention had been aimed then. Now, with it aimed at someone he trusted and loved just as much as he did her, it not only didn't bother him, but made him feel even more secure.

There was a time when he felt torn, watching Poe and Rey butt heads, each having their own private reasons not to fully trust each other. Those barriers were finally down, though, and in their place was something strong and sure. It felt like completing a circuit, the last wires now fully connected and the signals flowing between them uninterrupted. It was what he had dreamed of late at night as a terrified child, all alone in his sterile berth: A sanctuary. A home. A _family_. 


End file.
